Albuquerque's South Valley hasn't been known as a night-out-at-the-movies kind of destination, but that could all change this year, as Carmike Cinemas (Nasdaq: CKEC) starts construction on a 12-screen theater this week at Las Estancias.

Las Estancias is the 550,000-square-foot, $70 million retail development with a health care facility on almost 80 acres at the southeast corner of Rio Bravo and Coors boulevards. NAI Maestas & Ward's Steve Maestas has owned the land with developer Mike Mechenbier for several years in Albuquerque's retail- and entertainment-starved South Valley. The development broke ground officially in early 2013 and has been steadily adding tenants ever since.

Maestas, Mechenbier and Bernalillo County Commissioner Art De La Cruz were on hand Wednesday to mark beginning construction on the 47,000-square-foot Carmike Cinemas multiplex, saying it will be a significant addition to the overall development. It was Bernalillo County that facilitated $1.5 million for the Las Estancias project through Local Economic Development Act money, which was used to jump start initial construction. The basis for those funds was the construction of a $10 million, 88-bed, skilled nursing facility — On Point Health — which opened there last year.